In Retrospect
by scarce raindrops
Summary: Len recalls his time as a college student and reflects on what he probably should have and shouldn't have done.
1. Chapter 1

_In retrospect, he should have introduced himself properly._

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><p>There he is, in front of the doorway of the person that he is supposed to room with, the person he is supposed to split the rent with, and the person he is supposed to put up with. Len had already simulated various possibilities of how their first conversation would go in his head while on his way up to the second floor of the apartment complex, so logically speaking, he should be ready.<p>

But then again, life never had much logic. Because he is not ready, never was.

He had originally planned on going with the "suave" route. In that he will knock on the door, and once the person on the other side opens it, he will lean against the door frame with his arms crossed in front of his chest and flash the person a debonair smile, followed by a charming "Yo." Good thing that he got teeth whitening back when his parents was still willing to pay for his shits, or else the "million dollar smile" that he intends to showcase will even more worthless than a "one penny smile. "

That _was_ the plan at least, but not anymore. Funny how sometimes an idea will sound good until you actually have to do it, and what he is experiencing right now would be the perfect example. Though he knows that this is not the time to muse over trivial problems, especially not when bigger problems still exists, such as how he is supposed to introduce himself. He needs to regroup immediately, preferably downstairs or in the elevator, just to remove his vulnerability to humiliation, on the off chance that whoever that resides on the opposite side of the door decides to randomly open the door and catch him standing here.

Len spun on his heels, taking his luggage with him, and took a stride towards the elevator, and that is as far as he could get. The sound of twisted doorknob alerted him that his plan of a retreat had failed. Frozen mid-stride, with one leg outstretched in front of him, and the other one already lifted several inches off the ground, a single bead of sweat slithered down the boy's face as panic starts to set in.

Right now he is facing away from the person that opened the door, but he could tell without turning around that the person is giving him a curious look. Now the problem is, should he turn around? If he chooses to turn around, what will his next course of action be? Should he turn around and tell the person that from now on, they will be roommates? Or should he just smile?

Smiling sure sounds like an attractive option right now, because he was never any good with talking to people. He is perfectly articulate when rehearsing conversations by himself, but when he has to speak to an actual person, his voice will be reduced to barely above a whisper and he will stutter, to the point that whomever that he was trying to hold a conversation with gets frustrated.

He knows for sure that he doesn't want to irritate his future roommate on the first day.

Telling himself that people like smiles, especially the debonair ones, the boy with fair hair turned towards his silent observer, and smiled. At least he hopes the thing on his face is a smile.

...

...

The muscles on his face remained fixated in the same spot as he waited for a response from his future roommate, who he now identifies as a blonde haired girl.

Seconds passed...

Minutes passed...

Hours have not passed yet, but the boy has a feeling that it will eventually…

And they just stood there staring at each other.

However, the welcoming tension-relieving smile that the boy was hoping for never made an appearance.

It took a few second for Len to realize that the girl is expecting him to say something. Ironic how he was expecting her to start the conversation, but apparently now he has to smile _and_ talk. The girl's behavior is unarguably rude in his opinion, he already did his part in the conversation-starting process: he smiled, _and_ looked friendly. So the least she could do is to contribute the first words of the conversation. But he guesses that there was a reason that his roommate is a woman, because women are always such hypocrites, complaining about equal rights but never willing to do their fair share. Taking a deep breath to calm his raging nerves, Len mentally counted down 3 to 1 in his head, and opened his mouth, hoping that his voice will come out as calm and as smooth as he hoped it will be.

However, the boy's efforts were all for naught, as he never got the chance to speak. The girl beat him to the punch.

"Goodbye stranger."

It was only a whole 2 minutes later that Len was able to respond.

"Yeah, bye." He muttered after her, however the girl was no longer there to hear it.

...Not that he minds or anything. Now the girl is no longer an obstacle, he is free to go into her room, nay, their room, and unpack his shit. Producing the spare key given to him from his pocket, Len allowed himself entrance to the yet-explored chamber of the fair-haired maiden that had just passed him by minutes ago. To be honest, regardless of however perverted it might make him sound, he is kind of excited to see the kinds of things she keeps in there.

The apartment was unnaturally tidy; as if no one had been living here at all. The only hint of life would be the emptied coffee mug placed in the kitchen sink. There were no belongings left lying around, and the furnitures were all spotlessly clean. In fact, he could see his own reflection on the redwood dining table. The girl got money, that's for sure, meaning that it wasn't a money issue that caused the girl to submit a "roommate wanted" ad. Perhaps, it was due to loneliness? Len quickly dismissed that idea with a laugh, the girl is probably out with her friends partying like crazy right now, or maybe even on a date with her boyfriend. After all, she did doll herself up quite a bit, so it must have been a special occasion for her. Though, even though he probably won't ever say it to her face, nor say it aloud, he thinks the girl would have looked much better without all those cosmetics on her face.

The girl's room is locked, like how he had expected. She probably kept all of her personal stuff in there in anticipation of his arrival. Still to go to such lengths to erase the availability of everything that could help him identify her… she must have something to hide.

Or maybe he is just over-thinking this. He tends to have a habit of doing that.

Walking over towards the room that he presumes to be his, since it did not have a sign that says "Rin" hanging by the door, Len opens the door and was not impressed with the sight that welcomed him. Unlike the rest of the place, the interior was a mess. The work desk was littered with paper, and supported the weight of a desk lamp with a missing bulb. The bed was the most attractive thing in his room, it was clean, at least that was what it seemed, but when he touched the comforter, he could have sworn dusts flew out of it in the shape of a skull. He is definitely not staying here for the night; the couch is much more appealing.

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><p>A skull-splitting impact had snapped him out of his slumber. The boy hissed in pain, hand immediately massaging the assaulted part of his head, as he looked up at his attacker, eyes accusing.<p>

The blonde girl has returned, and is now standing a few feet away from him, a frying pan held tightly in her hand. It didn't take long for the boy to figure out the weapon the girl had used to injure him.

"W-who are you?" She spoke, her voice quavering.

Summoning up her courage, the girl pointed the frying pan towards him, as she took a threatening step forward.

"I-I have already called the police, so don't you try anything funny. I-It would be better if you behave yourself."

She took another step. The rim of the frying pan just millimeters away from the tip of the boy's nose.

Len immediately threw both of his hands up in an act of surrender, and opened his mouth to explain the situation. He wanted to tell her that he is going to be her roommate, and that he meant no harm and that he planned on waiting for her to come home but she was taking too long. But his voice seems to have deserted him, it always deserts him whenever he wants to talk to a pretty lady.

"Good, good. Keep your hands up in the air. If I see so much as a twitch of your fingers, I will whack you again. I am armed with a perfectly good frying pan, and I am not afraid to use it."

Evidently not, she already smacked her once with it and she smacked him hard. The girl wasn't bluffing either when she said that she had already called the police; he can already hear the sounds of police sirens coming from a distance. The best move right now would be to conform to the girl's commands and wait until the police arrives, and when they do, he will explain everything to them, given that whoever interrogating him isn't remotely intimidating or attractive, just so that he won't get nervous.

When all the confusions were cleared, and the girl realized his status as her roommate, she did not even offer him an apology, not even an apologetic look, just a simple "Oh." Then she left, and retreated into her room, never to come back out again for the evening. She didn't even offer him a proper place to sleep, as if she had expected him to just figure it out himself.

Now that he thinks about it, he probably should have stuck with the rundown apartment infested by strange hybrid creatures that are half-cockroach, half-mouse, and ghosts of deceased prostitutes, that he used to live in. At least they won't whack him with a frying pan. In fact, the most they will do is to give him some annoying sickness, and possibly, STDs. Though, he supposes the fact that the night is no longer young and that the morning is fast approaching is something worth rejoicing over. It will be back to school for him tomorrow, and the cute girls in his school would surely help him forget the not-so-pleasant experience that he had with his roommate, and help him restore his faith in the inherent goodness of cute girls with their gentle attitude towards him.

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><p>AN: Nothing in this chapter was in any ways meant to be offensive. On an unrelated note, if there is anyone interested in joining a One Piece RP, visit my profile for the link to a One Piece RP forum that I had just recently made.


	2. Chapter 2

In retrospect, if he had dropped his "clean-freak" attitude a lot earlier, his life would probably be a lot different.

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><p>Sometimes he wonders why god deemed it appropriate to bestow a girl as psychotically twisted as his roommate with such inappropriately good looks. What good will it do to help the devil-on-earth trick others with her sinister subterfuge? The least the girl could have done was to bring the information that she had countless session of coitus with her ex-boyfriend on the couch that he slept on yesterday to light before he actually slept on it. It sounds easy right? That's because it is easy. Yet, the girl couldn't find the good in her to even do such a simple task.<p>

Oh, the smirk on her face when she relayed such a vital piece of information to him when he was already running late for the subway that he needed to board in order to reach his university on time. How he wishes he would have walked up to her and slap it off of her face instead of just standing there with his mouth agape in shock and eyes widened in horror. Though eventually he realized that shooting the girl dirty looks would do his body no good in terms of restoring it to a state of better cleanliness, and made a run for the showers to wash all those filth that his body undoubtedly contacted off his body. The girl, however, being the devil-on-earth that she has always been, decided to impede his conquest for cleanliness, and locked herself in the bathroom after beating him to the said room with the justification that she needed to, in her words, "drop a deuce" He, of course, is a fairly reasonable guy, and thus would have had no problem with his roommate utilizing the bathroom before him, after all, no one has control over their bowel movements.

So he allowed himself to stand outside without a single word of complaint, and patiently waited for the girl to trade occupation of the bathroom. What he didn't expect was that the girl would take over half an hour to finish with her business. At that time he knew that he probably should have just went to the subway station regardless, but the notion that his body have contacted filth of ineffable disgustingness just won't allow him to achieve a state of inner tranquility. Plus he thought that since the girl is around the same age as he, therefore also attends an university, most likely the same one that he attends, she must have a plan to get to the university on time given her nonplussed attitude towards the ticking clock. He had thought that she must have had purchased a vehicle or something, and secretly hoped that she would let him catch a ride as reimbursement for all those emotional distressed that she had caused him. Which was why he was completely and totally stupefied when the girl just retreated back into the comfort of her room after exiting the bathroom; telling him that she doesn't plan on going to school when he interrogated her for the reason why she wasn't getting ready. By that time, Len knew he was left to his own devices; which meant he was pretty much screwed.

Needless to say, he was late to class. With his late arrival greeted by a round of roaring laughter, as he stood in front of his class with his roommate's sneakers that he put on in a moment of panic.

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><p>AN: Short chapter. Removed the original chapter 2 after I deemed it to be a piece of shit. In retrospect, removing the original chapter 2 was kind of pointless, since I am basically replacing a shitty chapter with a chapter that is just as shitty. Oh well, one shouldn't try to evaluate the reasoning behind actions that they did in a whim. Only headaches will result from that.

BTW, drop a review for the sake of my happiness.


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